


Take Up Your Name

by imaginary_golux



Category: Greek and Roman Mythology
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Gen, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-16 05:58:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13630086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_golux/pseuds/imaginary_golux
Summary: Kore is tired of being told her power set isn't any use - and she thinks she may have found someone who might be willing to team up with her. She'sprettysure he's not a villain...Beta by my superb Best Beloved, Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw.





	Take Up Your Name

Kore has been watching for a long time, and she’s come to a rather startling conclusion: the super who goes by Lord Hades is _not_ , actually, a villain.

Oh, he lives in a great underground cavern, and he dresses all in black, and he rides a chariot with flame-eyed horses, and his mask is a death’s-head skull. His power set, so far as anyone can tell, includes making rocks shatter and occasionally splitting the earth wide open, though to be fair to him, he never seems to send anyone but truly nasty villains plummeting into the depths of the earth. He _looks_ like a villain ought, and Kore was frankly _expecting_ to find him stroking a white cat while plotting to destroy the world, or something like that.

What she finds, instead, when she sneaks inside - and _yes_ , Mother will have her head for this if she ever finds out, but Kore isn’t _intending_ to let her find out - is that Lord Hades has made his cavern a place of such peaceful beauty that Kore would frankly like nothing better than to stretch out on the lush moss beneath the silver-leafed trees and listen to the tiny waterfall burbling over the pebbles. Lord Hades likes to sit quietly with his back against a boulder, petting a large dog with three heads and watching the tiny mechanical birds hop among the copper branches. Sometimes he’ll talk to the dog about what he’s seen and done out in the world, and it’s _that_ that finally convinces Kore that Lord Hades, for all the dark trappings he apparently prefers, is distinctly on the side of the good guys.

“I can’t be everywhere, Spot,” he says wearily one day, to the dog’s six flopping ears. He named his three-headed dog _Spot_ , and Kore honestly can’t even deal with how much that makes her heart ache. “There are so many crises, and only one of me...and Zeus _still_ won’t let me help with any of the family fights.” He sighs. Kore’s eyebrows nearly hit her hairline.

Zeus is the leader of the Olympians, the finest super team in the world. All of Kore’s many cousins are part of it; her mother is one of the founding members. _Kore_ isn’t part of it, because Mother claims she’s too young, nevermind that Kore is twenty-one and cousin Artemis has been on the team since she was _sixteen_. Mother also claims Kore’s powers wouldn’t be any use on a super team, which - well, Mother only knows about _half_ of Kore’s power set. The pretty half, because the first time Mother saw Kore dancing with a ghost, she threw eight kinds of fit and forbade Kore from ever seeing Hecate again, despite the fact that Kore _tried_ to explain that it hadn’t been Hecate’s fault at all. Since then, Kore has never let Mother see any of the less...flowery aspects of her powers.

But - Lord Hades _wants_ to be on a superhero team, and can’t be because Zeus is being petty, which...well, anyone who’s actually part of the _family_ knows that the happy facade they show to the public is as fake as a politician’s promise. Kore is honestly not surprised that Zeus would be petty enough to keep someone with a power set as useful as Lord Hades’s off the team for stupid reasons. Some long-ago insult, probably. Zeus has a _filthy_ temper.

Lord Hades wants to be on a team. _Kore_ wants to be on a team, and can’t, because Mother has forbade her to join the Olympians and spread rumors about how useless she is until none of the other teams are willing to take a chance on her. But Lord Hades probably hasn’t heard any of those rumors - after all, he never socializes with anyone, at least not that Kore’s seen - and maybe, just maybe, he’ll give her a chance to prove her powers really _are_ useful.

Kore takes a deep breath, and steps out of concealment. Spot is on his feet immediately, barking at her in an impressive three-part cacophony, and Lord Hades rises only a little more slowly, staring at her in startlement.

Kore holds out a hand. “Lord Hades?” she says hopefully. “I’m Kore.”

“Kore,” Lord Hades says slowly, reaching out to shake her hand briefly. His hands are warm, which startles Kore a little - she’d expected them to be cold.

“I’m sorry for trespassing,” Kore says, smiling up into surprisingly kind dark eyes. “But I heard you wishing you could be part of a team, and, well...I’m looking for a teammate, too.”

*

To say that Artemis is _surprised_ when Lord Hades appears to interrupt what Artemis rather _thought_ was going to be her own ignominious demise is rather an understatement, but honestly the most astonishing part, once Artemis has picked herself up and dusted herself off and helped dispatch the last few minions, is that Lord Hades has a partner. Not a sidekick, Artemis decides as she watches them fight; the unknown woman is clearly not deferring to Lord Hades, and it’s _her_ power controlling the revenants which have pinned the villain down. Definitely an equal partner.

Once the fight is over, Artemis shoulders her bow and approaches the other heroes - and yes, she thinks, they are _definitely_ heroes, all-black aesthetic notwithstanding. “Thanks for the rescue,” she says bluntly. “I don’t think I’ve met you before?”

The other superheroine grins behind her mask, and holds out a hand for Artemis to shake. “Pleasure to meet you,” she says quietly. “I’m Lady Persephone.”

**Author's Note:**

> Written for day 9 of the February Ficlet Challenge.
> 
> I am imaginarygolux on tumblr.


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